Author's note: this is my first submission, ever! excitement I would like to test the submission process, so what follows is my fantasy running in a stream of consciousness to have something to submit. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. For future readers, it may be useful to note that this was written during the COVID-19 pandemic, hence the lockdown theme. Feedback or a simple shout-out will be very much appreciated!
--Lockdown With a View--
Maxim opened the weather app again. It was Thursday morning before the Easter break and the hand-in deadline for his mid-term essay was at five. He could barely wait for it and had planned to enjoy nature as an easy way to keep the mandatory social distance. He had even mapped out some bike tours to make, but now he was staring at his screen. Though he should know better, he was still hoping that the forecast would change if he'd press 'Refresh' just one more time. Two weeks of spectacular blues while he was locked inside with his essay; even planes were grounded, leaving the skies purer than ever. And now this... The grey-cloud icons lined up on his phone for days to come. His mood was down the drain and without the sunny reward it was hard to motivate himself to give his essay its final push.
"Okay, put your phone away and don't be a baby." He mouthed the words to himself and used his mum's voice in his mind. With a sigh, he followed his own orders and opened his laptop, then spent the next few minutes gazing at it absent-mindedly, collecting courage to put new words down. One of the articles he had open in a tab of his citation programme had a couple lines highlighted that actually gave him an idea, but just when he switched back to his text document, there was a light knock on the door.
"Max, you awake?"
"Come in; it's open!"
Louis stuck his head around the door, his black curls all over the place and a beaming smile on his face. "Sonja is making pancakes. Again, I know. But I really think she might have gotten it right this time! Your deadline is not until five, or?"
Maxim gestured at his laptop, putting up his best attempt at an accusation. "I just had a luminous idea man. Now you blew it right out of my head! But okay, fuck this," and smacking his laptop shut he got up from his desk. "Let's see if the miracle has happened."
The pancakes had indeed turned out neither burnt, nor made with a table spoon of salt and the guys were all thanks and praise. They washed up the dishes for her in return while blasting Vampire Weekend through the kitchen. By the time it was clean, akin to sterile, and the three of them had made a large pot of tea, Maxim really had no excuses left. He topped up his favourite mug, thanked Sonja again, and returned to his room.
Surprisingly enough, the idea he'd had earlier was still in his mind and getting to work seemed easier now that his spirits were lifted. He worked for almost two hours, when his eyes caught some movement in the apartment across the street. The blocks of student housing were separated by roads with names of scientists that no one knew before they'd move in, putting facing windows a good twenty metres apart. Some students had put up curtains or blinds in their room, but Maxim and many others were too cheap or too lazy for such advanced decorations. The windows had wooden shutters that you could use at night, which evidently suited many of the students just fine. As a result, however, if daylight wasn't so bright, for instance on that grim Thursday before Easter, reflections in the windows would be minimal and you could see rather well into the apartments across the street. Now, Maxim didn't consider himself much of a voyeur, per se. But with this lockdown going on, he spent much more time in his room than he would usually do and so did everyone else. The situation basically begged for a hint of innocent spying, especially now that he was sat at his desk for days on end, working on his essay.
Two weeks ago, one of his neighbours had started a new routine of working out every day around lunch. Both flats were on the fifth floor, so the view was essentially straight across and Maxim had tried to ignore it at first, but he'd realised bit by bit that this guy was actually well-built and pretty handsome. At least from what he could tell at this distance. On Monday, he'd been out on the balcony with Sonja for lunch when she'd suddenly asked him what the hell he was staring at. He'd made some awkward excuse about enjoying the weather and staring at the clouds. But he'd been all flustered and Sonja'd given him a suspicious look. It made him realise that his initial glances had turned into somewhat of an obsession with this guy he started calling Workout William in his mind.
With the sunny weather from the past weeks it had been difficult to get a good look, but today was much the opposite. Maxim could almost read the weight indications on the dumbbells that 'Will' was holding up while doing squats. The guy had a big mirror on the wall perpendicular to the outside wall and he was facing it while doing most of his workout. Maxim admired his focused facial features, giving away the tension that the guy was putting on his muscles, when a pigeon landed on a street lantern nearby. Workout William must have seen it from the corner of his eyes, because he suddenly turned his head and looked right at Maxim. At least, that's what it felt like. Maxim dropped his gaze immediately, his pulse sky-rocketing and his mind racing. "Did he see me? Did he actually look at me, or did he just look at the pigeon? Could he even see inside?"
Maxim didn't dare looking back up for what seemed like an eternity. By the time he finally raised his head again, the guy was gone. He must've missed his favourite part where Workout Will would peel off his tight shirt and head into the bathroom. The door of Will's room was left ajar, which gave Maxim the hope of catching a glimpse of his neighbour returning from his shower. He carried on with his essay, but his eyes kept shooting up across the street and his mind was full of fantasies of Workout Will's wet dark-brown hair, dripping onto his muscular chest and shoulders. Maxim kept clicking around in a few sources that he still wanted to include in the final section of his essay, but his left hand trailed off to the waistband of his jeans. His palm rested gently on his stomach just below his navel and his fingertips absent-mindedly rubbed his skin, slowly creeping into his boxers.
"Time for lunch?"
Sonja's voice shook Maxim back to reality, as she had simultaneously talked, knocked, and opened the door. His hand hit the edge of his desk, as he tried to pull it up before she'd see him.
"Ouch!" He raised his hand to his mouth and sucked on his knuckles. "Um yeah, lunch would be great! What are we making?" He forced a smile to hide his moment of panic.
"Louis said we could eat what's left of the risotto? But tonight we'll need to go to the store for new supplies... Are you okay?" Sonja slightly furrowed her brow as she looked at him inquisitively.
"Yeah yeah, just hit my hand. I'll be right there, okay?"
"Sure. Don't forget to hit 'Save' while you're at it!" she joked as she turned around and dashed out.
The hours after lunch had flown by. It was quarter to five and Maxim feverishly scrolled up and down through his essay, making sure the references were right and double-checking if all his 'notes-to-self' had been addressed or removed. Despite his intense focus, the corners of his mouth curved up ever so slightly and nervous butterflies started batting their wings in his chest. He opened the submission page and checked the cover page of his essay once more for all the essentials. Then he clicked 'Export as PDF' and scrolled through the output. He wasn't sure exactly how it would be graded, but he had the feeling that his work was actually not bad. His mouth curved up even more as he clicked 'Browse' on the submission page and waited for the progression bar to turn solid green. When he finally hit 'Submit', his adrenaline levels shot through the roof.
"YAAAASS!!" Maxim's voice rang through the apartment. He jumped up in a frenzy of relief and exaltation. Without knocking, he burst into Louis' room. "Hand-in's done! I just submitted. It's holidaaays!" he was dancing through the room as Louis got up to give him a hug.
"Congrats man! We need to celebrate... Sonjaaaa!"
The two of them headed into the kitchen as Sonja appeared from her room.
"Yeah?"
"Max finished his essay. It's time for beer!" Louis promptly dug out three cans from the fridge and found a bag of crisps in their storage. "Let's go to the balcony. Is it still dry out?"
The three of them stepped outside, chit-chatting and opening their beers. Dark clouds covered the sky looking like they'd burst anytime soon, but the happy trio didn't mind. Sonja had opened the crisps but did not want to hold them up. She briefly looked at the hanging planters on the balcony's railing, then shrugged and put the bag down. The planters looked rather depressing usually, but a few weeds had started blooming over the past weeks and the bag of crisps could stand perfectly upright between them. All three gathered around it while chatting and joking around. Both the crisps and the beer disappeared quickly and Maxim was about to get a second round when the wind picked up and a rogue drop of rain hit his cheek.
"Guys, should we run to the store before it starts pouring?"
Louis gave him a friendly pat on his shoulder. "Brilliant!"
The three of them quickly rushed around, getting some shopping bags and their list of stuff they'd run out of, gathering in the hallway to put on shoes. They were basically out the door, when Maxim realised that they'd left the balcony door open.
"Just go, I'll be right there!" he urged the others while getting back inside. As he got to the balcony, he noticed the empty bag of crisps still planted between the weeds and stepped out to grab it before closing the door. Just that second he saw Workout Will come out the main entrance of the opposite building, five floors down. His eyes locked onto Will's broad shoulders making a wavy little swinging move and for a second he just stood there. He was tempted to see where his hot neighbour was off to, but he needed to catch up with his flatmates. He ripped his gaze off of Will's perfectly round butt and left the balcony. As he was locking up the apartment, he received a message from Sonja with a picture of a long queue at the store, saying "Don't rush :(".
"Too late now," he thought, and headed down the stairs with his head in the clouds again; his mind producing images that made his cheeks burn.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the store and saw the queue that was still about the same length. Louis was waving at him with an enthusiasm that was probably infused by the beer's buzz. Maxim apologetically stepped past the other customers, pointing at his friends and mumbling excuses, when suddenly he froze, staring right in the hazel eyes of Workout William.
"Sup?" was all he could get out. "My erm... my friends...," he half-heartedly pointed at Louis again and kept the sentence floating mid-air.
"No worries mate." Will produced a genuine smile and the friendly twinkle in his eyes made Maxim go weak in the knees. When Maxim finally reached his flatmates he was still too perplexed to speak.
"I didn't know you and Jeff know each other?" Louis asked him.
"Jeff?" Maxim had obvious question marks in his eyes.
"The guy you were just talking to? Jeffrey Ferguson? We were on the same team when I started rowing."
"Oh we erm..." The input/output error in Maxim's brain remained obvious as he tried to put Jeffrey and William together into one person. "I don't really know him, we just said hi."
The queue started to move again and Maxim took the chance to change the topic. "You think they'll have toilet paper again?"
Shopping was quick with three pairs of hands, though not quick enough to beat the rain. The trio predictably got soaked on their way home, but dry clothes and delicious food easily made up for the cold shower. The rain kept hammering on the windows and the upcoming Easter weekend combined with a fresh supply of beers in the fridge made for a decisively enjoyable evening. It was well past midnight when they finally said goodnight and parted to get some sleep.
Maxim maybe drank one too many, or possibly two, but his biking plans were cancelled anyway so he didn't care. His head was spinning though. He couldn't go to sleep like this and he figured fresh air might help. He stumbled through his dark room a bit clumsily and grabbed hold of the window handle as a welcome source of support. Thinking to swing it open and take a deep breath, he looked out and quietly turned the handle instead, staring at his neighbour's window that was wide open. He could feel his heartbeat in his temples and an unmistakable twitch in his pants as he was taking in the scene. Across the street was Workout Will... well, Jeffrey, shirtless on his bed. A dim light of shifting colour and brightness radiated from a laptop screen on his legs, casting a glow on his muscular chest, his handsome face, and most excitingly, part of his arm as it was moving up and down at a slow pace.
There was no doubt as to what Maxim was witnessing and part of him felt like he should give his neighbour some privacy, but his eyes were glued to Jeffrey's body and the look of strained focus mixed with lust on his face. Maxim slowly opened the window and took a step back to move out of the light from the street that fell into his room. He realised that he'd been holding his breath all this time and quietly inhaled the fresh air. It cleared his mind, but his brain was much too busy processing the view, to notice anything but the slowly rubbing moves of Jeff's arm. Jeffrey slid his laptop further down his lap towards his knees to reach for his zipper. Only barely could Maxim avoid gasping loud as he stood there and saw how Jeffrey pulled the goods out of his pants, and damn were they good! Not even both of Jeff's hands could cover the full length and even from across the street Max could see the wet tip glistening in the glow of the laptop screen. Without even realising it, he licked his own lips and one of his hands slid down his pocket.
Through the fabric, he started touching himself slowly, following the pace of his gorgeous neighbour. The rhythm was simple and steady, but slowly picking up speed. Maxim could hear his own blood pulsing through his veins as he watched Jeffrey making long strokes; now only with one hand. The other hand had moved further down between the legs, but it was hard to see what was happening. Perhaps Jeffrey liked some ball play? Or maybe his fingers were reaching even further down... The fantasies that were shooting through Maxim's mind were getting wilder and wilder as Jeff switched from long strokes to fast rubbing of the tip. The muscles in his upper arms and chest were tensing up even more and Maxim subconsciously followed suit.
Suddenly, he could see Jeffrey closing his eyes a split second before he sank back in the pillows and ropes of gooey juice shot through the air, lit up by the porn that was still playing for nobody's eyes. The view pushed Maxim over the edge and he could barely keep standing while waves of ecstasy rolled over him. His fingers got sticky and wet, even through his boxers and the lining of his pocket.
He just wanted to pull out his hand when Jeffrey shut his laptop and got up, looking directly out the window. Maxim froze and prayed that he was standing back far enough to be hidden in the shadows. Meanwhile, Jeffrey got closer to the window and caught the full light on his chest that was covered in cum. His dick was still a remarkable size, even as a semi. Maxim marvelled at the sight, when Jeffrey stretched his arm out the window closing the left shutter, and reached to the other side for the right one. Then, the last millisecond before it shut, Maxim's heart jumped as Jeffrey seemed to look directly across the street into Maxim's open window and blink with a cheeky smile.
"Did he just...?!"
Maxim was still not sure if his mind had messed with him when he finally dared to move again, undressed, and closed his own shutters. In the dark, he found the way to his soft comfy bed, and a big smile formed on his face as he lay down and dozed off. Whether or not he'd imagined that blink, this was a great start to his Easter break.